Dmitry Mikheyev

Dean, Moscow International Business School

"The issue of migration to the United States is not so acute. The outflow of Mexicans to their homeland is now higher than the influx into the States. The number illegally arriving in the country has also decreased.”

While Dmitry Mikheyev and RT find a kernel of truth in the U.S. immigration issue, the Russian government media agency promotes a narrative that ignores the complexity of the illegal migration to the U.S. and the context of the political debate.

Tatiana Moskalkova

Russian Commissioner for Human Rights

“I received an official response from the leadership of the FSIN (Russia’s correctional service) that since she (Denisova) is a citizen of another state, and he (Sentsov) is a citizen of Russia, she cannot yet be allowed in.”

Oleh Sentsov is a citizen of Ukraine, not Russia, and the Russian prison authorities themselves have said so. The Russian human rights commissioner denied Ukraine access to Senstov based on the false claim.

The SBU chief claimed a deadly attack on a Roma camp may have been organized by Russia, noting that the organization responsible uses the Russian social network VK. However, other Ukrainian local far-right groups responsible for earlier attacks also have pages on VK, and these groups have not been accused of being agents of Russia.

Sergei Ilyin

Radio Sputnik

"Some of the people, supposedly repressed for political reasons, whose release Washington is calling for, have been convicted of grave crimes such as terrorism and murder. Their guilt has been completely and exhaustively proven."

While the three men convicted of planning a terrorist attack on Somali refugees were extremely active on Facebook, it is not clear if they saw or shared any of the Russian Facebook ads with anti-Muslim or anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Semyon Slepakov

Russian TV Comedy host and singer

“Russia is ready to host the World Cup. The stadiums are open. The cops are polyglots. That is a quick recap of many years of work.We're not going to lose face in front of the planet. It’s not for nothing we terrified [the planet] with a missile. In general, all is well. But there is only one “but”: Our team, frankly, is sh-t.”

Russia’s political system ranked is “authoritarian,” the country’s World Freedom score is consistent with “Not free” by Freedom House, based on lacking political rights, civil liberties and press freedom.

Dmitry Peskov

Russian Presidential Press Secretary

"But speaking seriously, then of course, there are no such foundations in Russia, and any allegations of Russia's possible involvement in this false flag operation are nothing more than innuendo, and they do not correspond to reality.”

Boris German told authorities a well-connected Russian ordered him to kill dissidents and the journalist Arkady Babchenko. His allusion to a likely non-existent pro-Putin organization involves evidence that is, at best, opaque at this time.

Maria Zakharova

Press secretary, Foreign Ministry, Russia

“The initiative that seems to be useful at first glance and aimed at helping sports observers cover the main football event occurring every four years actually turned out to be nothing but more Russophobia, trivial anti-Russian stereotypes."

Zakharova criticized a handbook for journalists covering the World Cup in Russia next month. Produced by human rights groups, the handbook chronicles abuses of rights and freedoms committed by the Russian state, both during preparations for the 2018 World Cup and more broadly. It also recommends what foreign reporters should cover beyond sports.

Vladimir Putin

President, Russia

“That is an unprecedented thing. They are attempting to bring high treason charges against a person for what he did publicly and for performing his professional duties. I haven’t seen anything like this in a long time.”

Many nations, including Russia, have charged journalists with high treason. Despite Putin’s claim that he has not seen anything like this in a long time, he actually has – the case against Russian journalist Grigory Pasko, who was imprisoned on high treason charges

Alexander Domrin

Alexander Domrin, Professor of International Law, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow

“Up to this point, it (Crimea) has been perceived exclusively as a Russian territory. And in 2014 the peninsula joined the Russian Federation on the basis of a referendum in which the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants of the peninsula took part. And now it will not be returned to Ukraine or any other country.”

The overwhelming majority of countries do not recognize Crimea as a part of Russia. The International Criminal Court considers Crimea to be occupied by Russia. The 2014 “referendum” conducted after soldiers wearing no insignia moved in. The results of the vote are highly dubious.